It’s time! Time for the top 12 of the Sandra and Woo and Gaia fanart contest 2014! If you haven’t done it already, also don’t forget to check out the submissions placed between position #13 and #25 and all the other submissions we received.

The submissions are ordered from place 12 to 1. Please show your support by visiting the artists’ websites and/or by writing a comment in the comment section of this blog post!

Place 12 goes to Robert Lodge

Zoey is coming out of the closet, wielding a chainsaw that’s on fire! Larisa must be super jealous of Zoey because I seriously doubt that anything cooler hotter than a burning chainsaw could possibly exist. I’m sure we all now want to see an awesome drawing of Larisa wielding a burning chainsaw. And I can promise that you’ll get one later this year!

[Artist’s comment: Out of the closet… wielding a chainsaw that’s on fire! :)]

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Place 11 goes to Riley Hulick (website)

In my opinion this is the funniest entry we received this year. I just love the facial expressions of the characters. It wouldn’t have worked half as well without the stripes on Woo’s pants. Although she doesn’t seem to be partiularly thrilled about it, I think Sandra looks really cute as a raccoon.

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Place 10 goes to Robin Dassen (website)

Robin submitted this funny parody of the famous kiss photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, V-J Day in Times Square. Just like Riley’s entry above, this drawing shines with its funny facial expressions. The line art and the coloration are also very professional.

[Artist’s comment: The idea is based on what is probably the most famous kiss in history: V-J Day in Times Square]

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Place 9 goes to Eliza Mária Sándor (website)

I’m sure Eliza’s parody of the TV series Doctor Who will especially thrill our British readers. I do not only love the tagline, but also the well thought out layout and color composition. Eliza already sent four submissions in 2012 and 2013, but this is surely her best one yet and would have reached 5th place in 2012, for example.

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Place 8 goes to Cory Iguchi

Cory sent this beautiful portrait of Lilith in an embellished Disney princess dress. What really sells the piece is, of course, the golden ornament depicting our beloved imp Ars. However, I find the cyan background to be a bad choice and would have preferred a dark blue one. That Cory’s drawing didn’t make it into the top 6 shows how tough the competition was again this year.

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Place 7 goes to Giulia Beck (website)

In last year’s contest, Giulia won the “silver medal” for her very clever drawing of Sandra, Woo, Cloud and Larisa. The best parts of this year’s entry are Larisa setting the cupcake on fire, Seeoahtlahmakaskay eating her well-deserved piece of cheesecake and Ruth having found her appetite for delicious steak again. However, some characters were a little hard to recognize and some of the actions appear a little random. Nonetheless, it’s a great piece of fanart that’s full of little details.
It was almost impossible to decide between the submissions placed on 7, 6 and 5, but I had to make up my mind eventually.

[Artist’s comment: This took forever to make, at least 26+ hours. It’s the largest drawing I’ve ever done, with the most people/animals.
These are all the human characters from the top left to the top right and so on: David | Cloud | Yuna | Ye Thuza | Sandra | Ivan | Jelena | Theo | Benjamin | Zoey | Michelle | Larisa | Landon | Richard.
These are all the animal characters from the top left to top right and so on: Lily | Sid | Ruth | Tibor | Blacky | Seeoahtlahmakaskay | Woo | Shadow | Echo]

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Place 6 goes to Yenrou Humuni (website)

Yenrou sent this elaborate drawing of various Gaia characters that must have taken him a long time to create. While the drawing may be a little busy, I particularly like the pretty lighting and the concept of using puzzle pieces to separate the heroes from the antagonists. I wonder if Ilias will be able to rescue Lilith who’s being dragged away by some kind of magic spell…

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Place 5 goes to Ray Zhang (website)

Yes, this is a simple picture that didn’t require a lot of technical drawing skills to create. But on the other hand, it is extremely stylish with a carefully selected color palette and proper lighting. Sandra in her beautiful dress is definitely the highlight of the drawing. This should be the perfect wallpaper for any fan of Sandra and Woo and the Bioshock video game series.

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Place 4 goes to Ah Tan

The coloration of Ah’s drawing of Sandra and Woo can only be called breath-taking. I also love the little drawings they did, the unconventional page layout and how cute Woo looks. A beautiful piece of art in every regard! Sandra’s weird dream reminds me of Super Mario, but I’m not sure if it’s meant as a direct reference.

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Place 3 goes to Garrett Williams (website)

After sending two funny submissions in 2011 with Sid and Woo and in 2013 with Sid and Ruth, there’s nobody who deserved to win one of the cash prizes more than Garrett. While those submissions were already great, his awesome rendering of the abandoned factory that our heroes explored in this story arc is even better. The models look like they were just taken out of Final Fantasy VII and the building looks remarkably close to the backgrounds seen in the strips #126 and #127. On top of that, there’s even a joke in it.

[Artist’s comment: Since I haven’t seen any fanart that portrays the Sandra and Woo cast in Final Fantasy VII style, I title this fan art “Because It Had To Be Done”. A missing moment from the abandoned factory story arc. You might recognize the shot from comic #126. I tried to recreate the building as closely as possible, and that comic was a great reference.]

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Place 2 goes to TheManWithNoUserName

The man who submitted this drawing might not have a user name, but without a doubt exceptional drawing skills. His extremely atmospheric portrait of Gaia’s antagonist Eldor Olenvis in a realistic style is certainly the best Gaia related entry we received this year. I’m amazed how TheManWithNoUserName conveyed lighting and depth in such a superb manner with simple black strokes.

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Place 1 goes to Zheng Qu (website)

The moment I received Zheng’s mail I had no doubt that there couldn’t be any other winner than him this year. His drawing of Sandra and Woo as their alter egos in the Under A Killer Balloon story arc, private eye Sandy South and her assistant Qoo, is just breath-taking in every regard: subject matter, style, coloration, lighting, attention to detail, resemblance of the characters, … I absolutely adore the illuminated shop signs and how the rain interacts with the environment and the light sources. I am amazed how Zheng drew Sandra’s face in such a cartoony style that still doesn’t clash with the rest of the drawing. You can look minutes at the artwork and still discover new details that you’ve missed so far. Now imagine a Pixar movie about Sandy South in a style like this, that would be the best thing ever!

I have also uploaded the original version which I adjusted a bit because it showed a tinge of green on most computer monitors.

[Artist’s comment: It’s a my slightly altered take on Sandy South and Qoo. I was a really big fan of the noir art style you guys used in those strips. The little creepy girl standing watching them is Yuna.]